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Rave On Against Proposed Power Station

HUNDREDS of people are expected to take part in a silent rave organised over the internet to support a protest against a £400 million power station. Around 300 people are signed up to the Stoke-on-Trent’s Very Own Flash Mob group which plans to stage an event outside the Potteries Shopping Centre on Saturday.Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Organisers hope to repeat the success of a similar event held during the summer which saw around 100 simultaneously lie down in the city centre for two minutes. The event will involve the group of people turning up in Hanley and then dancing silently for two minutes from the strike of 2pm. Sharon Crawford, aged 21, from Newcastle, set up the Facebook group for people to get involved.Ã‚ She said: “People were talking about the lying down event everywhere during the summer, and I think that events like these are good if charities want to get involved to raise money or awareness for a cause. I think the power station being built will destroy the beauty of the Staffordshire Moorlands.”

Darren Tranter, chairman of Villagers Voice Staffordshire Moorlands, a group set up to fight the plans for the £400 million power station in Cresswell, said: “Our fight to put an immediate stop to this proposed development is continuing at a pace.Ã‚ We are determined to utilise every possible avenue to get our message across.Ã‚ We are absolutely delighted that Sharon and the facemobbers have decided to support our campaign.”

Meanwhile, MP Bill Cash has now raised fears about the effect on wildlife and that the proposed station could lie on contaminated land.Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Mr Cash said: “The Environment Agency has said that the issues of contaminated land, bio-diversity and wildlife concerns, which I had raised earlier, should be addressed in an Environment Impact Assessment.” In a letter to Mr Cash, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council chief executive Simon Baker states:Ã‚ “The view of the council’s planning officers is that the scheme cannot be supported because of the visual impact.”

The planning application will be determined by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

To find out more about the proposal or to sign a petition to oppose the development go to www.vvsm.co.uk